Development of biomechanical algorithms in health assessment and of a business plan for future establishment of a service platform for CHaT (Center of Health and Technology). 01/01/2023 - 31/12/2023
Abstract
Society 5.0 is a vision in which emerging technologies are used as a tool in health. In Medicine 4.0 smart health is required for innovation. The multidisciplinary interfaculty institute CHaT (Center for Health and Technology), has already more than ten years of experience in methods and algorithms developed using optoelectronic marker-based measurement systems for biomechanical movement and gait analyses. The main drawback of this optical technology is the use of passive markers because it is time-consuming to place the markers on the skeleton of the subject. In addition, occlusions are common since each marker must be detectable by at least 2 cameras at any time in order to be correctly interpolated. To solve this, a new 4D4A scan lab (4D scanner for Accelerating Advanced Motion Analysis and Application), that is unique in the world was recently installed in CHaT with the goal of opening new frontiers in Medicine 4.0, elevating the University of Antwerp to one of the top universities in the world for Human Modelling and Simulation in Medicine. The 4D4A scan lab offers the possibility to capture the human body in 4D (3D + time) without the use of markers so that close contact is no longer required. This offers some opportunities such as measuring in COVID time and a free natural movement of the test person due to the absence of annoying sticked markers. With an accuracy of less than 1 mm, 178 3D images are recorded per second and processed automatically. In addition, the 4D4A scan lab can extend sparse skeletal movements and static 3D geometric information into accurate new dynamic 4D body measurements such as an arm or abdominal circumference over time. This now opens new applications, not only in basic or clinical research, for example monitoring gait and balance in stroke patients, but also in many industrial sectors, such as biomedical engineering and industrial ergonomics. Before the 4D4A scan lab can be offered as a service to industry, hospitals and research institutions, a number of bottlenecks still need to be addressed: 1) The initialisation in the 4D4A scan lab: preparation, coordination and general management of the 4D4A Lab activities; 2) Simultaneous 4D motion tracking and reconstruction of 4D digital modelling of the human shape, complex geometry, and soft tissue synchronizing different devices; 3) Biomechanical and ergonomic analysis of 4D dynamic body metrics by developing specific algorithms for processing scripts and formats to visualise and analyse with free software packages e.g., Blender (blender.org) and OpenSim (simtk.org/projects/opensim); 4) Validation of the developed algorithms protocols, products, and devices to meet the specific demand from the industry; 5) Development of a business plan for future creation of a service platform for CHaT (Center of Health and Technology) in order to transform 4D high-tech knowledge into a service platform, creating new collaborations resulting in services, patents and spin-offs.
Providing research assets related to the area of Human Digital Twin and Human Digital Modelling.
01/10/2022 - 30/09/2023
Abstract
The object of the services (hereinafter referred to as the "Services") is to provide research assets related to the area of Human Digital Twin and Human Digital Modelling, making use in particular of the 4D4A Lab of the ChaT Institute of Antwerp and complementing research work initiated by LIST's HUMOD research group. More precisely, it consists in building an experimental framework exploiting the 4D scanning lab to build Digital Twins of People in their environment (HDT). For all the scenario proposed, the experiments will concern anthropometrics measurement and the observation of behaviours that are deviating from an ideal reference. Each time, there would be a HDT created and a Digital Twin (DT) of the environment or/and of the other entity with whom the human is interacting. When observations and analyses are made, an HDT+DT formal model is updated with the findings, maintaining the synchronization between the physical entities and their digital model, to prepare for future works where the DT would be exploited for simulations and integrated in Virtual Reality environments.